Emmanuel "Manny" Muscat (born 7 December 1984) is a former professional footballer who last played as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for

Green Gully Green Gully Soccer Club is an Australian association football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Green Gully is one of the largest clubs in Melbourne, having participated in the now defunct National Soccer League between 1984 and 1986. The club ...

in the

NPL Victoria The National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL Victoria or NPL VIC) is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer league syste ...

. Born in Australia, he represented the Malta national team.

Club career

Early career

Raised in

West Sunshine Sunshine West is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's central business district, located within the City of Brimbank local government area. Sunshine West recorded a population of 18,552 at the . Sunshine West is a ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Manny Muscat played for Sunshine George Cross where he was made captain at the age of 19, then made the switch to rivals

Green Gully SC Green Gully Soccer Club is an Australian association football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Green Gully is one of the largest clubs in Melbourne, having participated in the now defunct National Soccer League between 1984 and 1986. The clu ...

where he had the most successful years in his Victorian Premier career.

Wellington Phoenix

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League Men, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the 2007–08 ...

signed him from Green Gully in August 2008, initially as a short-term injury replacement for the injured

Vince Lia Vince Lia (born 18 March 1985) is an Australian professional football (soccer) player who plays for Essendon Royals in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 3. Born in Shepparton, Lia played youth football in Victoria before making his senior ...

, but he was later offered a full contract and signed on as a contracted player. Muscat made a total of twenty-six appearances for the Wellington Phoenix in the 2009–10 season, including all three of the final series matches. After getting the only red card of Wellington's season, fellow Phoenix player

Troy Hearfield Troy Hearfield (born 31 October 1987) is an Australian former soccer who played as a right back. Club career Newcastle Jets Hearfield signed for Newcastle Jets in 2006. On 2 February 2007, Hearfield made his professional debut in a game agains ...

picked up Muscat's usual role of

. This change pushed Muscat into a defensive midfield role for Wellington where Muscat continued to play through the rest of the season. On 20 October 2009, Muscat was rewarded for his fine form as he extended his contract with Wellington Phoenix for another three years. On 20 January 2012 Muscat scored his first goal for the club in his eighty fifth appearance versus the

Newcastle Jets FC Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under Prof ...

. The day after breaking his goal drought it was confirmed Muscat had extended his contract by a further two years and rejected offers from hometown clubs

Melbourne Victory FC Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under North American professional sports leag ...

and

Melbourne Heart Melbourne City Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region, South-Eastern region of Melbourne, Victoria. They compete in the A-League Men, the Australian soccer ...

. On 3 January 2013 Muscat received a 3-game suspension after twice elbowing a Brisbane Roar player in his side's 2–1 loss.

Melbourne City

On 3 March 2016, it was announced that Muscat had signed a 2-year deal with Melbourne City commencing at the beginning of the 2016–17 A-League season. He made his first appearance in a City shirt in a 5–0 friendly match win over

Port Melbourne SC Port Melbourne SC is an Australian soccer club based in Port Melbourne, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. The club was formed in 1968 by local Greek Australians, and was promoted over the years to the Victorian Premier League in 1994. It spent ...

on 20 July 2016. On 3 May 2018, Muscat was released by Melbourne City.

Green Gully

Muscat returned to

after leaving the

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

International career

On 11 May 2009, Muscat was called up to the Maltese national team and made his international début, for a friendly against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. He was used as a late substitute for a 2010 World Cup qualifier against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. In August 2010, Muscat was called up for the opening two

UEFA Euro 2012 qualification The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 2012 was a series of parallel association football competitions held across Europe between 2010 and 2011 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2012. The draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 7 Febru ...

matches against

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

A-League career statistics

Honours

Melbourne City *

FFA Cup The Australia Cup (currently known as the Hahn Australia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia (known as Football Federation Austra ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Individual * A-League All Stars: 2014

References

External links

Football-Lineups Tactical Profile

Wellington Phoenix Profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muscat, Manny 1984 births Living people Caroline Springs George Cross FC players Green Gully SC players Wellington Phoenix FC players Melbourne City FC players A-League Men players A-League Men All-Stars Australian people of Maltese descent Naturalised citizens of Malta Men's association football defenders Maltese men's footballers Malta men's international footballers Australian men's soccer players Expatriate men's association footballers in New Zealand People from Sunshine, Victoria Australian expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Australian expatriate men's soccer players Maltese expatriate men's footballers Maltese expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Soccer players from Melbourne 21st-century Australian sportsmen